Diving Into You | Fred Weasley

24 | The Goblet of Fire

The heavy schoolwork ensued, and soon the end of October was upon them. The delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were set to arrive that very day and Naia, Fred, and George were rushing to the castle entrance, unbelievably late for their arrival.

They had been caught up crafting another letter for Bagman, and experimenting with certain ingredients for the Puking Pastilles sweets, and had lost track of time.

"Where do we go?" Fred said, his hand still in Naia's.

"Mr. Weasleys! Vance!" Professor McGonagall said furiously from the front of the steps. "Late! Get in line, please!"

"And where have you been?" Hermione asked Naia with a raised brow. "And why do you smell like caramel-"

"Just, working on something," Naia laughed. "How long have you been out here?"

"Too bloody long," Ron said with a huff. Someone pointed over the forest, and Naia watched in awe as a giant powder-blue carriage was pulled by around six giant horses- Palominos.

The carriage landed with a loud crash, the horses neighing and throwing their heads back.

"Blimey, that's one big woman," Seamus commented, looking up at the Beauxbaton's Headmistress. She was bigger- even bigger than Hagrid!

"My dear Madame Maxime," Dumbledore said, kissing her hand, "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dort," she said, "I 'ope I find you well?"

"Excellent... you and your pupils are welcome in our beloved castle,"

Naia saw as around a dozen boys and girls in silk blue uniforms emerged from the carriage. They were staring at Hogwarts with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"You may head inside to warm up," Dumbledore said, and the students walked in, eager to be rid of the cold.

Now they stood waiting for Durmstrang to arrive. After a few minutes, she could feel a rumbling in the water, one that didn't feel natural to her. She nudged her friends and nodded her head to the lake. "There,"

"What?" Harry asked. She began to hear a loud sound come from beneath the waters.

"There!" Naia said, pointing towards the lake that was currently still. Everyone turned to look.

"Are you blind, Vance? There's nothing-" Draco started.

"Can you hear that?" Ron said loudly as they had begun to hear sucking and vacuum noises come from the direction. The lake began to rumble, and soon from the water emerged a gigantic ship from below the depths.

They watched as people began disembarking the ship. All of them were huge and had a heavy built... or so it seemed. As they approached, Naia saw it was because of the huge fur coats they wore on their shoulders.

"Dumbledore!" Their headmaster greeted as they neared the castle steps.

"Professor Karkaroff, welcome!" Dumbledore greeted the headmaster like an old friend. As the students approached, the girls began to blush at their tall and handsome faces.

"Harry- it's Krum!" Ron said in a stunned voice, "I don't believe it!"

Naia's eyes went to scan the rest of the Durmstrang delegates, and they all seemed so stony and serious. She felt a pair of eyes on her and made eye contact with a boy that was walking right next to Krum.

The boy did a double-take as he stared at Naia for a short while. The other student next to him nudged him and took a glance to see what his friend was looking at. And now he too was staring. They tore their eyes away from Naia after a moment as they walked, occasionally glancing back every now and then.